Commerce In Gotham, Harlem Style

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BUYERS & SELLERS The face of retail uptown changed forever when Harlem USA came to 125th St. in 2000. Today, Marshall’s, Old Navy, Modell’s, Nine West, the New York Sports Club, Hue-Man Bookstore & Café — the largest African-American-owned bookstore in the nation — and the Magic Johnson movie theaters can all be found there. Designer Shoe Warehouse, Equinox’s lower-priced Blink Brand, Joe’s Crab Shack, and Party City are now part of a new retail development at 125th St. off Frederick Douglass Blvd. And, believe it or not, it’s been more than 15 years since Fairway set up a mega-market at 131st Street right off the Henry Hudson Parkway.

On the East Side, shoppers can head over to the East River Plaza at 117th St. off the FDR Dr., a complex that includes New York’s first Target store, as well as Costco, Marshalls, PetSmart, Bob’s Discount Furniture, Old Navy, and Best Buy.

Whole Foods has recently confirmed a 2015 opening of an enormous outpost at 125th St. and Lenox Ave., and a new Burlington Coat Factory will occupy the building’s top three floors.

GREEN IS GOOD Wondering what the deal is with those neon-green taxis picking up and dropping off passengers in Harlem? The Taxi & Limousine Commission introduced a fleet of metered and credit card-equipped green taxis as a way to standardize easier street hails in Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Dubbed Boro Taxis, they can pick up passengers north of W. 110th St. and E. 96th St. Currently, with the exception of the airports, the greens can take you anywhere a standard yellow cab would, but they cannot pick up fares in Lower Manhattan as they make their way back uptown or to the boroughs.